The main European stock markets were in the green on Thursday morning, building on the previous day's rebound, as interest rates eased slightly following a sharper-than-expected fall in monthly retail sales in Great Britain, raising hopes of a rapid easing in central bank policy.

In Paris, the CAC 40 gained 0.30% to 7,423.56 points around 08:45 GMT. In London, the FTSE 100 advanced by 0.63%, while in Frankfurt, the Dax gained 0.28%.

The EuroStoxx 50 index gained 0.35%, the FTSEurofirst 300 0.32% and the Stoxx 600 0.28%.

Wall Street futures point to stability for the Dow Jones, a rise of 0.17% for the Standard & Poor's 500 and 0.39% for the Nasdaq on the heels of a green serance, buoyed by new technologies following results and forecasts from Taiwanese giant TSMC.

Among the day's indicators, UK retail sales fell more sharply than expected month-on-month in December, by 3.2%, which should increase pressure on the Bank of England (BoE) to cut interest rates quickly.

On the bond market, the yield on the ten-year Gilt

fell by more than four basis points to 3.894%, while in the eurozone, the yield on the German Bund with the same maturity was stable at 2.31%, having risen by four basis points the previous day.

German producer prices did, however, post a larger-than-expected fall in December, down 8.6% year-on-year, a sign that inflationary pressures are easing ahead of next week's meeting of the European Central Bank (ECB).

On the stock market, the real estate sector (+0.13%) was in the green, with Unibail Rodamco (+1.1%) one of the CAC's strongest performers.

New technologies (+0.62%) are still in demand after their strong performance the previous day, with Stmicroelectronics gaining 0.52%.

Teleperformance , up 5.68%, benefited from the upgrade of Stifel's recommendation to "buy".

The banking sector (+0.54%) also performed well, with KBC Group gaining 2.23%, Morgan Stanley having upgraded its recommendation on the Belgian group to "overweight".

In quarterly publications, BASF advanced by 1.02% despite an operating profit for 2023 below its own forecasts. (Written by Claude Chendjou, edited by Blandine Hénault)